Have you tried this?Make sure that you have your Restore FUnction enabled and can choose a restore point if necessary.

Go into your WINDOWS folder. (You must have "see hidden" folders enabled to do this)

Start-->My Computer--> Windows--> at the very top you should see a number of folders that have "uninstall" under them written in blue. Click on each one until you find a "group install" You are still looking for either KB824141or Q824141. Look carefully. When you find it use the uninstaller to remove it. If you run into problems use your restore point to put things back the way they were and then Please call Microsoft at 1-800-936-4900 (press option "1") to obtain Hotfix #833509. This over writes the original fix which may have been already built into your system with SP1. Inferno

Hi ritchiesbabe. I hope I'm not too late, and you check back here again! I have another suggestion for you to try.

When you first launch the game, a box appears on your desktop. The box has some buttons on it. One of them is "Configuration" (or something similar). Click it. You'll see the choice to play the game in Hardware or Software rendering mode. The default choice is Hardware. It's not working for you. Change the bullet to SOFTWARE mode. Then try to launch the game again.